Cause de la pollution (The Cause of Pollution), Somi

Destruction, deforestation, the end of the world, those are the things that rolled through my head when I looked at Cause de la Pollution. This piece shows less about the past, and more about what the future may bring if we don’t fix current events. In the last decade, we’ve seen more of these problems regarding pollution slowly take form. From weather changes to animal extinctions to destroyed ecosystems. All of these horrible events link back to the same massive problem, Pollution. In this piece, you see some of these components regarding pollution including factories and deforestation. But the main thing that grabs your attention is the earth falling apart as the “animals” try to hold it together. This includes an eagle, a lion, a cheetah, a chimpanzee, and a gazelle, that all look human-like. This launched a million questions in my head. Why those animals? How is this possible, why do these “animals” look this way? But when I got a closer look at the painting and thought about it more, I realized that this isn’t as far-fetched as I originally thought. As I look at the background, I see the fire from the factories appearing to be the cause of this mass destruction that could be our fate for the damage we’ve created. To me, it looks like our whole universe is coming to an end and who knows how close we could be to a complete annihilation. The animals look like they represent the loss of wildlife and identity as the animals dress, look, and act like people. This symbolizes that there could be no choice but for the animals to evolve into a behavior like humans so they can endure the punishment that is living on the same planet as the ones who took away their habitat and changed their life forever. I feel that pollution should be our biggest priority as our world could fall apart very quickly if we don't do anything. If not, I fear for our future that could have conditions we can’t even imagine. This painting has given me pressure to rise up and take action now while we still can. In the last year, I’ve learned a lot about pollution and what it has irreversibly done to our environment. I despise what these people have done and this piece perfectly shows what the world will be. In a matter of time, we will be lost to History along with the rest of our universe. This is Sullivan Leitch with another Bulldog Art Tour.